A pretty amazing book.
For a work of fiction, the first 3/4 is more like a chronicle of the most significant events and encroachments on individual freedom that I have ever seen compliled in one source.
If you have not read it, read it.
The documentation of little known historical events from the "Bonus Marchers" up to the 1986 "Miami FBi Shootout" that are usually overlooked by everyone is worth the price alone.
The fictional story and characters do not detract from the book and give it a nice first person context. I did find the ending somewhat improbable, simplistic and containing just a bit of propoganda, but it was nothing compared to other agenda books such as the "Turner Diaries" which completely bored the crap out of me.
Again, if you have not read it, read it.

Originally Posted By Wolfpack:
I got John Ross to sign up as a member here...
[url]http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=8&f=8&t=170148[/url]
I'm buying one of his prebans also.
[url]www.john-ross.net[/url]

Originally Posted By Snorkel_Bob:
Stery: Its taking you this long to read the book? I figured you would have read it long ago.
Ive just finished it for the fifth time.
I love it

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That's the first thing I thought. Jesus H. Christ I thought you had to read that before becoming a member here.
The history of the book is great and for the most part true. The fantasy part is pretty entertaining too. I like the part when he is shooting the guys with his varmint rifle as they are trying to shoot back with MP5s. Maybe I should read it again, it's been a couple years.

Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at yourside, kid.

Good book. I loaned it to a soon to be college student and his parents went apeshit over the cover, he had to return it after only reading the first chapter. His dad had one of those 9 children die everyday from guns stickers on the car. Fortunately, the kid had a love for firearms and for seeking out his own truth/path.

A pretty interesting book. It drags a bit in places but overall a pretty good effort.
I have to say though that Ross's grasp on history is just that, his grasp on history. That doesn't mean it is accurate. After all, this novel is fiction. He can write history anyway he wants to support his story. I am not saying his history is made up. I am just saying that the book is fiction. As such he is held to no standard of truth or facts, or his version or interpretation of the history he uses in his book.

Originally Posted By BusMaster007:
OK.
I said I'd read it this year, along with Atlas Shrugged and something good about Teddy Roosevelt.
I'll go to the bookstore this week.

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I'd read Atlas Shrugged first. I am almost done with it, and that book is amazing. It drags on in parts, but it is well worth it.
While UC will be a fun read for any gunowner, Atlas Shrugged is one of those books that will truly change your outlook on life, if not your actual life.

I saw someone post here on AR15 that hey thought it was a book of paranoia. Just wonder if it is paranoia that the gun owners may actually have to resort to this plan, or that the gun owner themselves are paranoid?
I finished it last night. I have this strange urge to learn how to shoot stuff from the air with a .22.....[:D]

Originally Posted By monkeyman:
I have to say though that Ross's grasp on history is just that, his grasp on history. That doesn't mean it is accurate. After all, this novel is fiction. He can write history anyway he wants to support his story. I am not saying his history is made up. I am just saying that the book is fiction. As such he is held to no standard of truth or facts, or his version or interpretation of the history he uses in his book.

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I deliberatly cross referrenced most historical events in the book. And except for the ficticious characters included in the events, I could not find one event that was anything less than historically factual.
What event sepcifically did you find inaccurately portrayed?

The bit about Miller wasn't 100% accurate, and WAS written to engender more sympathy for him from the reader. In real life, he was a pretty bad dude. HOWEVER, the original court case is still right, and the Supreme Court ruling (which WAS in the absense of anyone providing an arguement for the defense) is still wrong.
Still, the book (even with the problems at the end which John Ross has acknowledged) is an excellent history of the decline of individual rights in this country over the last century, and how they came to be that way. IMO, the most powerful scenes were those where Ray returns from Africa and Henry has to explain to him how things had become. WOW! That part was great, in how it communicates the depth of the infringements.
-Troy

Some time ago someone provided a link where one or two of the Ruby Ridge guys were actually prosecuted. I didn't think any of them had been reprimanded, let alone prosecuted and found guilty.
Any insight?

When you combine the history of gun laws with the story of Prohibition and the original drug laws like the Harrison Act you get a pretty fair picture of how easily we slipped into the structure of a Nanny State. All bad laws that created MANY more problems than they even HOPED they could cure.
Repealing Prohibition gives me some hope that we can come to our senses. More taxes on tobacco gives me less.

When words lose their meaning, a people can move neither hand nor foot. Confucius

I think that even if the historical facts are off or skewed it still does not negate that people have been KILLED, bankrupted, or jailed for years over a $200 revenue measure, for something that is as silly as cosmetic features or length.
It also does not change the facts that employees of the Dept of Agriculture can carry guns unrestricted? {Is this true?}
Even more insane is the fact that "full auto" crimes are even more rare than survivors of lightening strikes.
Aimed fire is much more deadly than a spray and pray.....
They will NEVER want to know this....

A bit more complicated than a mere "gun tax". Just like the AWB of today, taxing of machine guns was an attempt to regulate them out of existance. Interestingly enough, Hollywood sensationalized their use and the politicians (many of them corrupted by the bootleggers)jumped on board.
Like today, full autos weapons were not the prefered weapons of gangsters but they were used by them. Great minds of that era somehow decided that those guns created crime and that gangsters (who thrived on the illegal smuggling and selling of illegal alcohol) would either register and pay the tax on the tommyguns they sometimes used to kill one another or they would stop using them.

A bit more complicated than a mere "gun tax". Just like the AWB of today, taxing of machine guns was an attempt to regulate them out of existance. Interestingly enough, Hollywood sensationalized their use and the politicians (many of them corrupted by the bootleggers)jumped on board.
Like today, full autos weapons were not the prefered weapons of gangsters but they were used by them. Great minds of that era somehow decided that those guns created crime and that gangsters (who thrived on the illegal smuggling and selling of illegal alcohol) would either register and pay the tax on the tommyguns they sometimes used to kill one another or they would stop using them.

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actually what i mean was [b]illegal[/b] gun tax. aside from the 2nd ammendment issues there is the pesky fact that a $200 tax on something that only costs $5 (i.e. autosear, or pre-32 subgun) is an excessive tax created not with the intention of creating revenue. when you say, "great minds of the era decided that...gangsters...would either register and pay the tax on the...or they would stop using them." it is clear that NO ONE would pay a $200 tax, INCLUDING gangsters! rather the law added another felonious count to the gangsters rap sheets.
that said, my favoirte part of the book is relating the resurgence of anti-carry legislation to the jim crow laws of the post-reconstruction era. as simple and as clear as this is, i had never put two and two together on this one as i never understood why there was a postwar shift towards disarming the citizenry when everyone knows that Lee rode off on his horse with a sabre on his side and gun on his hip. this was not an issue of disarming the populace but rather ensuring that blacks were unarmed... now if only we could educate the liberal masses that they support laws enacted to strip power from the blacks and to ensure the good ol' boy network of the whites. HA! imagine black speakers (other than Alan Keys) decrying gun laws as being racist! theres an idea to get every spineless liberal on our side!

Originally Posted By monkeyman:
A pretty interesting book. It drags a bit in places but overall a pretty good effort.
I have to say though that Ross's grasp on history is just that, his grasp on history. That doesn't mean it is accurate. After all, this novel is fiction. He can write history anyway he wants to support his story. I am not saying his history is made up. I am just saying that the book is fiction. As such he is held to no standard of truth or facts, or his version or interpretation of the history he uses in his book.

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I understood the book, I do not understand what you are trying to say.
Bob

I just started reading it last night. Someone mark this date down. We'll see how long it takes me to get through it with a full time job, side work nights/weekends, 2 children, a wife, and a been living with me for 2 months 51 year old brother who is getting a divorce. Whew!
AB